Mickey’s Beach
Climb Review
I went bouldering at Mickey’s Beach with some awesome new and old friends.
I found the hike down to the beach from the parking lot to be easy and quite beautiful.
The rock is a mix of greywacke standstone and serpentine and we found it to be very slippery, and yet also very sharp at the same time (depending on how much the water had eroded it).
There were many different routes, but because of the incoming tide, we decided to focus on a few routes, which worked well for us, given that two of us were new to bouldering outdoors.
I climbed the bottom three routes, as well as trying another route that we made up that overlaps with Blank Eliminate (V5) on the North Faces boulder. The holds were too bomber for it to be a V5, but Jerry ended up sending that one (it would probably be rated a V0+ or a V1- on the Mickey Beach scale).
I scampered up the Dihedral Boulder besides Buddha Boulder and enjoyed the exposure. It was a bit scary to climb down, but my fear of heights is definitely improving.
Diagonal Crack (V0; Buddha Boulder)—I really enjoyed the positive holds on the finger crack and found the feet to be horrid at the beginning. But once I adjusted to how horrible the feet were on the other boulders, I found ways to appreciate them. After sending it a few different ways, I tried climbing at the end of the session with sandals and bare feet. I thought that bare feet felt better than climbing shoes with sand on them.
Center Face (V0; North Faces)—This was Marina’s project climb and it took us a few tries to find our way to the top. If I remember correctly, the crux of the climb is getting a right foot on a bomber hold, then basically doing a single leg press to find better handholds. The fall area is all rock, so each climb was a all-hands-on-deck exercise in spotting and we did an awesome job, as no one got hurt.
Spanish Inquisition (V0; North Faces)—I climbed this one as I found a good hand hold and just went up. I found it to be much easier than Center Face.
What I Learned
So barefoot climbing is pretty fun. I had the fear of tearing skin on my foot, but the foot holds on Diagonal Crack were too rounded to really hurt my feet. There was sharper stuff on Dihedral Boulder, but again, I didn’t slip (so no feet were damaged).
The rising tide added a bit of excitement and time constraint to our climbs. I actually found it to be a good motivator, as if you can’t send it in time, your feet would be wet and even slipperier than with just sand.
There were a couple of nudists near by (older men who were sunbathing and enjoying the beach), but they didn’t distract from the bouldering. I found it to be a non-issue.
The weather forecast called for super windy conditions (17mph with gusts up to 30mph). The conditions at the beach level were amazing, as there was not much wind, with gusts up to about 7-8mph. With it being a sunny day, the weather was just about perfect for climbing.
Friends
I climbed with Jo, Jerry, John, Denise, and Marina. Jo, Jerry, and Marina are good old friends at this point—it was great spending time with them and learning from their climbing experience. Jerry was especially impressive in how confidently he climbed (and just sent hard routes). Marina was a shining example of tenacity as she threw herself at her project over and over, even though she was not physically 100% there. Jo tried her best on Diagonal Crack and was able to make a few moves.
John and Denise were new to me and to outdoor bouldering, but were really fun to climb with. They were quick to learn to spot and took their roles seriously, which was just perfect. They then adjusted well to the outdoors and were trying to send different routes until the very end.
Thanks to Jerry for the last row of photos!
What Happened?
We hadn’t bouldered outdoors in a long while, so we decided to check out the legendary Mickey’s Beach. Jo, Jerry, and John carpooled with me, which made the drive a bit less boring, though I was still waking up a bit, so didn’t have much focus for engaging conversations.
When we got to Mickey’s Beach, we found the parking lot to be less than half empty, with swathes of space for all of us. Within 15 minutes, Marina and Denise arrived and we made our way down to the beach.
We then climbed around various rocks without our guide books (I had forgotten mine at home and Marina had not brought her copy because she was counting on me to have it). It was pretty easy to identify the two main routes we tried as the first had tons of chalk marks and the second was one that Marina identified for us.
We climbed until our hands hurt , then settled down for a picnic and conversations. Afterwards, a few of us tried a few more routes until we were completely done. Then we headed back to our cars and headed off to our next destinations.